


i'll be alright

by SmittyJaws



Series: 50 ways to say "I love you" [5]
Category: Led Zeppelin
Genre: Asexual Character, Asexual Relationship, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:13:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24344047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmittyJaws/pseuds/SmittyJaws
Summary: Prompt from50 Wordless Ways to Say “I Love You”2. Tucking the sheets around them when they stir during the night.36. Helping brush their hair after a shower.
Relationships: John Paul Jones/Original Female Character(s)
Series: 50 ways to say "I love you" [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1757476
Comments: 17
Kudos: 10





	i'll be alright

Jonesy doesn’t know if he’ll ever fully be used to the luxury that comes with being in a famous rock n roll band. It feels like just yesterday they were playing tiny venues and putting out their first album, and now here they are playing to sold out stadiums around the world. And even that has upgraded in recent years; no longer are they subject to shitty tiny aircraft that leave for bumpy turbulence-filled rides from city to city, now they’ve got their own private jet.

Well, technically it’s not _theirs_ as other bands use it too, but it’s a damn sight better than what they had before. Jonesy’s back is definitely protesting less, and he knows Bonzo’s anxiety at flying is definitely helped with the smoother ride.

And it’s not even just a regular jet; it’s got all sorts of furnishings in it that they’d all openly gawked at when they’d first been shown. A bar, a television and movie library, an organ even (which Jonesy has definitely messed about on from time to time), and plush seating and a bedroom.

Tonight, it’s his and Jay’s turn for the bedroom; they’ve got a rotating system of who gets to sleep in there and who’s relegated to the sofa in the other room, and Jonesy couldn’t be more grateful that they get it tonight.

It’s been a long day of interviews, a photo shoot, and a concert at the end of it all, and Jonesy’s exhausted. By the time they’re hustled back onto the plane from the concert venue, he’s swaying slightly from fatigue, wanting just to sleep.

He has to force himself to stay awake long enough to change out of his sweaty concert clothes; the material sticking to his limbs as he peels it off and tosses it to the floor haphazardly. In the back of his mind he hears a voice that sounds suspiciously like his mum chastising him for being untidy, but he’s too tired to care right now. He allows Jay to steer him in the direction of the shower ( _“because I love you, but you’re not getting in bed smelling like **that** ,” she said_) and now that he’s appropriately cleaned and ready for bed, he’s ready to pass out. 

Or rather, he would be if Jay wasn’t making him stay upright for a little while longer. 

He makes a noise in protest; the bed is comfortable and the fur bedspread is soft and warm. He wants to sleep, damnit.

Jay gives him a sympathetic look and waves a brush in his direction. “Just a quick brush to make sure your hair won’t tangle up in the night,” she murmurs, already positioning herself behind Jonesy and beginning to carefully run the brush through his damp locks.

In the main room, Jonesy can hear a sudden peal of uproarious laughter and assumes that Robert must have told a joke. How that man still has energy after everything is beyond Jonesy’s comprehension, really; he’s like that damn rabbit with the battery.

He grumbles quietly at the noise. “Doesn’t he ever stop talking?” he mutters. “Some of us want to actually sleep.”

Jay taps his shoulder lightly with the brush. “You're cranky tonight,” she teases, but goes back to gently brushing his hair, working out the knots and snags so carefully Jonesy can’t even feel it.

“Just tired,” he says in a yawn, sagging back against her chest more as the repeated motions of the brush on his scalp relax him further. “Doesn’t it ever end?”

“I know you are,” Jay replies sympathetically. “I am too. But look,” she waves the brush in front of him, “all done! Now you can sleep.”

“Mmm, good. Now come to bed and let me hold you?” He turns his head and reaches out to take her hand in his. “We don’t get to sleep this well on the sofa.”

“Of course.” Jay kisses his forehead before extricating herself carefully from behind him with a whispered apology so she can put the brush away and dim the lights as low as they can go.

Jonesy’s eyes are closed, but he can feel the movement of Jay crawling back into bed, gingerly making her way back to him while she probably can’t see much of anything. He feels a slight movement of cool air as she settles herself beneath the fur beside him, and sighs contentedly, slinging an arm around her waist to hold her close.

“Missed you today,” he murmurs, shifting his head on his pillow and cracking his eyes open to look at Jay. “Missed this.”

“I was right there for most of it,” Jay reminds him, and she was— she and Blanche hanging around and pulling faces at him and Bonzo to amuse them while the interviewers spent (as always) most of their time on Jimmy and Robert. Staying just out of frame when photographers were taking pictures of the band, and watching the show from a designated spot in the wings.

“S’not the same.” Jonesy shakes his head, before shifting in closer; his face nearly entirely nuzzled up to the crook of her neck. “No time to ourselves. No time to just live.”

“I know.” A pause, before she speaks again, more hesitantly now. “Do you think... maybe... you might want to stop this? Zeppelin? Is it too much?”

Jonesy’s more than half-asleep at this point, but her words pull him back to a higher level of awareness. _Does_ he want to stop? It’s a question he’s definitely asked himself on more than one occasion, though he’s never actually voiced it to Jay. He knows he’d had to stop taking on more studio work a year or two back— the arranging and producing of other people’s’ albums in addition to his work with the band causing him to slowly burn out. 

But even now, on its own, being in a rock n roll band is demanding. Even if he’s mostly invisible behind Robert and Jimmy on stage, and able to sightsee incognito with nothing more than a change of haircut, it’s still a lot to handle sometimes. Even his bout of bad flu had only bought him three days of rest before he was back at it again, and Jonesy sometimes wonders when something like that will happen again, because this can’t be healthy.

And yet... he loves what he does. His band mates irritate the hell out of him sometimes, he clashes with Jimmy on differences of opinion for arrangement styles, but they’re still his friends and he doesn’t particularly want to give this up. He loves playing, loves collaborating, loves seeing all the sights that come with a tour... it’s just busy, is all. 

“No,” he decides, shaking his head slightly. “‘S a lot, but not too much. Not with you here.” He tilts his head up to leave a kiss on her cheek to punctuate his sentence, before another burst of laughter is heard from outside again and he grumbles, shifting to hold Jay more closely.

Maybe his answer would be different if Jay wasn’t able to come with him on these tours so often; he’d most likely have a much harder time being gone for so long if he was on his own. Not that he gets anxiety or homesick the way Bonzo does, but it would be lonely, he thinks. “I’ll be alright,” he repeats, settling back down as the laughter quietens off with a dramatic ‘shush’ that could have only come from Robert. “Just grumbling.”

“If you’re sure.” Jay sounds mildly sceptical, but doesn’t press the matter, laying her arm over top of where Jonesy’s is holding her, lacing her fingers together with his, and relaxing into his arms.

Jonesy sighs contentedly now, tucking the sheet and fur around them where it’s ridden up a bit on Jay’s side, before letting the faint remnants of Jay’s vanilla-scented conditioner and the quiet hum of the plane engine lull him into a pleasant sleep.

It’ll be another long day again tomorrow, but Jay's presence definitely helps.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm also @smittyjaws on Tumblr!


End file.
